The Fundraising Regulator, which runs the Fundraising Preference Service (‘FPS’) has commissioned a fundraising consultancy to review the service. The review will aim to assess whether the FPS is providing a good quality service and achieving the aims for which it was established.
As part of the review, a survey is being launched in which charities will be asked to consider if they think the FPS is still required, particularly when considering the introduction of stricter data protection rights under GDPR.
The FPS allows members of the public to block unwanted contact from charities, however figures published in November 2019 showed that the number of these suppression requests had more than halved in the year to the end of August 2019. 8,719 suppression requests were received, in comparison to 19,583 in the year before.
The survey will also ask whether there should be an option for people to stop all direct marketing communications from fundraising organisations with a single request. This idea was originally recommended as part of Sir Stuart Etherington’s 2015 review of fundraising practices. Currently, members of the public are required to specify which charities they do not wish to hear from.
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